Police officers arrested in car impound scheme
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police officers in a Central California town took part in a scheme in which cars belonging to poor Hispanic people were impounded, towed and later sold or given away for free to some officers when the car owners couldn't pay the fees, authorities said Tuesday.
Four officers — including the recently retired police chief and the acting chief in King City — have been arrested, and two others were also arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said.
"There has been a significant breakdown in the internal leadership of the King City Police Department," Flippo said. "It also appears to me that some officers have dishonored their badge."
The six officers account for more than a third of the 17-member force in the agricultural town of 13,000 people about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco.
Early Tuesday morning, teams from the Monterey County sheriff's office, the FBI, the Salinas Police Department and the district attorney's bureau of investigation arrested the officers after a months-long investigation. It began as a response to complaints by residents of corruption and criminal acts within the department dating back at least 3 1/2 years, Flippo said.
The probe revealed that more than 200 vehicles had been impounded and that 87 percent had been taken in by the same towing company.
In some cases, authorities said, officers simply kept the cars for their own use.
The four officers tied to the alleged car theft scheme have each been charged with bribery, accepting a bribe or embezzlement. They are Sgt. Bobby Javier Carillo, Acting Chief Bruce Edward Miller, former Chief Dominic David Baldiviez and Mario Alonso Mottu Sr.
Brian Albert Miller, the operator of the towing company who is also the brother of the acting chief, has also been arrested in the case.
KSBW-TV reported that all seven of those arrested were bailed out of jail within hours. The officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, the station said.
"I'm completely surprised by the arrest this morning," Bruce Miller told a KSBW reporter on his was way out of jail after his bond was posted.
He said he had known his department was being investigated but had had no idea that he was a suspect. He denied that he had accepted any bribes in the car theft scheme.
"My reputation is soiled," he said. "There's no coming back from this, even if I'm found innocent. People are always going to look poorly upon me."
The front office of the King City police station was closed Tuesday afternoon. King City Manager Michael Powers told The Associated Press that Monterey County sheriff's deputies and officers from the nearby cities of Gonzales and Soledad have volunteered to help police the city now that so many of its officers have been taken off duty.
"Obviously, people are in shock, and so is the city staff," Powers said. "But at the same time, we can't tolerate corruption in the police department."
___
Associated Press writers Paul Elias and Sudhin Thanawala contributed to this story.
